The Five Times Tony Put The Avengers Above Pepper
by V.Evergreen
Summary: And the one time he didn't.


**I.**

In the grand scheme of things it wasn't that big a deal, Tony reasoned to himself. It was only lunch and he had only suggested that he meet Pepper in her lunch hour this morning. Surely it wasn't the be all and end all now that he couldn't make it. It made more sense for him to stay with the rest of his team and simply eat with them. Pepper herself had said that he should spend time with them so that was what he was doing. Still, as he sent the text to her he did so with a sinking feeling; sometimes it felt like he hardly saw her anymore. He vowed to make it up to her the next time he saw her. If they had the time.

~o~o~o~

Somewhere across the city Pepper Potts sat in her office as she read the text from Tony. She hadn't even bothered to walk down to where they had agreed to meet; there was no point when she knew he wouldn't make it. She sighed as she put her phone on the desk, at least he had had the good courtesy of telling her this time. She pushed her phone away from her and instead pulled over yet more paperwork. She technically had a break but she thought she might as well work through it. After all she wasn't going anywhere.

**II.**

It had seemed like an age but it had finally happened. There was a night where both Tony and Pepper had the evening off. When he first found out he had half a mind to take her out somewhere nice. Maybe a expensive restaurant or somewhere just that little bit more romantic.

However, when the time actually rolled around he could tell that neither of them were up for a night out. What actually ended up happening was a movie night in.

Tony had brought out the DVD's and Pepper had made the popcorn (she would be damned if she let Tony try and do that again, especially after last time) and both of them had settled on a sofa ready to watch crappy films and just enjoy each others company.

It was half way through the first film when Tony felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Pepper didn't notice so he pulled out his phone and almost groaned when he saw what it was. An urgently marked SHIELD email with what looked like one hell of an attachment. He quickly scanned the email and had the sudden urge to delete it and pretend he'd never seen it when he read what the attachment was.

Apparently, some unknown hacker had managed to get through the first part of the firewall around the SHIELD database; not far in enough to get to any actual information but enough to cause concern. The main problem was that the experts at the SHIELD base couldn't actually see where the hacker had gotten in from, so lo and behold Tony had been sent nearly all of the encryption codes that SHIELD possessed with instructions to go through them all and find the problems.

Although correcting encryption codes was his idea of hell, he couldn't help but smirk at the fact that SHIELD had finally acknowledged that if he wanted to look at their files there was no stopping him. Normally, it would be unthinkable to let a civilian have all of their security codes but Tony had been hacking them successfully for months and they knew it, so they might as well let him fix the software.

He glanced at Pepper. She was laying on the sofa beside him with her feet on his lap and totally engrossed in the movie. He figured he might as well get started on the codes now, after all he was sure it was possible to work on a laptop and watch a film at the same time. He would have just used his phone but the mere thought of all of those codes in miniscule writing on his phone was enough for his head to start aching.

The next five minutes saw Tony retrieve his laptop (down the back of the sofa, he honestly didn't have a clue how it could have gotten there) and start working through the encryption codes. It was dull tedious work, but he could see the mistakes almost immediately and he was looking forward to seeing the faces of the so called "experts" back at SHIELD when he showed up with the finished work they couldn't do. He might even take a camera just to immortalise the moment.

Tony worked and worked and by the end of it he was so deeply absorbed in his new project that he didn't notice the film finish or Pepper rise from the sofa. However, he did notice when she bent down and kissed his cheek,

"Night." She said quietly as she looked him with bleary eyes, "Don't work too long." And with that she left and walked towards the room they shared. Tony stared after her. He looked at his watch and frowned, how had it gotten so late? It didn't make sense.

He looked back at the computer in front of him but suddenly the screen was too backlit and the words too small. It hit him that the only evening he'd been able to spend with Pepper in what was quite literally weeks had just passed. And he had spent the entirety of it working.

**III.**

Tony tried not to grumble as he looked at his own reflection and tried to tie his tie. He was just about to give it up as a bad job when Pepper came over and did it herself with quick efficient movements. He couldn't believe he'd actually been coerced into doing this. He was almost sure that he didn't need to be at the quarterly SI board meeting, after all he'd never really showed up when he'd been the CEO and he was sure now that Pepper was technically his boss there would be even less reason to go.

He'd voiced as much at the time when she said he had to go, but she had pointed out that he still held the controlling interest in the company and as the figure head she wanted him to be there. In the end he agreed to go, partly because her argument made sense but mostly because she was giving him The Look and he had long since learned not to question her when she had that steely glint in her eye.

He was fully prepared to be bored into an early grave as he got ready. Normally, he would have tried to make these meetings a little interesting and in truth, he had planned to do the same in this one until Pepper had dragged him aside,

"_Just this once_," She had said with an almost pleading tone in her voice, "_sit there and be good. You just need to get though the meeting without almost killing yourself or the company and then you can doing whatever you want._"

He had done his best to look innocent and ask when had he ever been anything other than perfectly behaved at a board meeting but she had stopped him looking serious,

"_I mean it Tony. I don't have time to deal with the extra work now. Go to the meeting, sit still and try not to offend anyone, ok?"_ She had looked so weary when she had said it that he had agreed. With a flash of guilt he remembered all of the extra work that had been piled on her in her still fairly new role as CEO and how little he had helped her with it. Sure, she had been practically running the company for years but it was a lot different now that she was _actually _running the company, everybody seemed to want her attention and they were coming up with increasingly creative ways to get it.

He never meant to drop her in at the deep end but between upgrading and repairing the suit and trying to keep on top of the missions from Fury that kept pouring in he realised that he had helped even less than he did when he was actually the boss.

He cemented his resolve to be "good" in the board meeting (her word not his).

Pepper finished with his tie and smoothed down the lapels to his jacket. She was smiling as she looked up at him and when she spoke it was a far cry from her clipped voice she usually used when she tried to chivvy him out of the house and into the boardroom,

"Thanks for coming," She said still with her hands curled around his jacket, "I really appreciate-"

Her soft speech was drowned out momentarily by the shrill chirp of Tony's phone. He reached for it and mouthed a quick "Sorry" to Pepper.

"What?" Asked Tony impatiently. He realised this was probably not the best way to answer the phone but if it was who he thought it was then, in his opinion, the attitude was completely justified.

"Stark." Came the cool reply from the other end, Tony had to bite back a smirk as he heard the irritation in the director's voice, "We need you to come in. Team meeting."

Tony felt the beginning of his own ire creeping up on him at the though of being summoned anywhere, "Can't." He said briskly, "I've got my own meeting to go to, so if you'll excuse me-"

"It wasn't a request, Stark. Either you come in or we're bringing you in." The line went dead and Tony was left fighting back the impulse to call Fury back and just shout down the line for a solid five minutes.

His anger disappeared when he looked at Pepper and was replaced by the all too familiar feeling of guilt. He told himself it was ridiculous, he hadn't actually done anything wrong this time, but still the feeling would not go away.

"Pepper, I-"

"I heard." She said as she rubbed her forehead with her hand as though she was trying to dispel the inevitable migraine, "Go on. Try and behave at that meeting too."

He gave her a half hearted smile which she returned and soon he was on his way to the meeting. Privately, he thought that there was no way in hell he was even going to try and be helpful in this breifing. Maybe if he drove them crazy enough they'd stop thinking it was a good idea to pull him off schedule without any warning.

The real problem wasn't even that he didn't want to go, that wasn't what had made him so angry. He'd been to more than his fair share of meetings in the past that he didn't want to attend and somehow he had survived them all. The fact of the matter was that even though he didn't want to go and he'd had no control over it, as he left it just felt like another time he'd left Pepper to deal with the mess of problems that seemed to follow him around.

**IV.**

Tony wasn't really sure if he should count this as one of the times on the ever growing list of times that he had let Pepper down.

He had cleared both of their weekends for the coming week and in typical impulsive Tony fashion charted his plane to set course for a small Caribbean island. He hadn't told her of his plans and he wasn't going to until she realised that they were driving towards the airport. It was meant to be a surprise, present and apology all in one; he knew that he hadn't been there enough for her recently and he was more grateful than he could ever or would ever want to express that she was still sticking with him.

He was looking forward to spending their time together but more than that he was looking forward to seeing her have a chance to unwind. He didn't always appreciate how much stress she was under constantly and it was only in the little moments like when he saw how awkwardly she held her head because of the stiffness in her neck or when he noticed how much concealer she would use in the mornings to hide the dark circles under her eyes from her lack of sleep, that he was reminded how much work she put into to everything she did.

For the whole week he was a buzz with anticipation. He was pretty sure that Pepper knew he was planning something but he was also confident that she had no idea what. It was with that that he woke up on the day they were due to leave filled with anticipation.

Anticipation that was soon replaced with foreboding when he heard the shrill tone of his phone going off.

Five minutes and a heated argument later he was staring dejectedly at his phone as he keyed in the number to call the airfield. Looked like he wasn't going to need that jet after all.

He reasoned that Pepper never knew what he was planning so at least she wasn't disappointed, but as he looked at her later the next day with her head in her hands as she talked to yet another board member down the phone line, looking the very definition of harried, he knew that he was.

**V.**

Pepper was smiling as she got ready that night. It wasn't a major function that they were attending tonight but the point was that she and Tony were going together. It felt like she rarely got to see him any more and it was even more unusual for her to hold the majority of his attention.

Her smile faltered as she thought upon the situation. She knew Tony was no happier with the situation than she was but the fact remained that he had other responsibilities now. It was almost laughable that just a few short years ago she would have given anything for him to act more responsible and now she was craving that he would be just a little selfish so she could see more of him. The irony of the sentiment made her give a wry smile, she should just be grateful for what time they did get to spend together.

With a final look in the mirror she smiled and swept out of their bedroom to where she knew Tony would be waiting by the elevator.

Her heart sank when she saw him.

He was dressed impeccably and ready to go out but she could see the phone pressed to his ear and uncharacteristically serious look on his face. The look that could only be caused by a mission. When he got off the phone he looked at her and for a second he looked completely unreadable and she could almost see him trying to find the words to apologize.

She decided to save him the trouble, "Go." She said softly as she tried to pull up a convincing smile, "I'll be here when you get back. Be safe."

Neither said a word as he walked over to her and kissed her goodbye. She could see that he genuinely didn't want to go but as usual, duty had to come first. She didn't resent him for that and she hoped he knew it. People needed him and she was more proud than she could say that he was taking it in his stride.

She waited until he was gone until she kicked off her shoes, curled up on the sofa and reached for her laptop. She didn't even bother getting changed before she stared answering emails and reviewing contracts. She supposed she could still go to the function if she really wanted to, but then again, these things were never any fun by yourself.

**+I.**

It was a blustery autumn day when Tony and Pepper both stepped out of the tower which had become a sort of way station to the Avengers. Already Pepper was regretting leaving her hair down as it whipped around her face and got caught in her mouth but there was nothing she could do about it now.

She looked over at Tony who, contrary to her, was having a hard time keeping the smile off of his face. Just the sight of him so excited warmed her heart and as they both walked to the car she couldn't help but smile too.

It was an expression that slid straight off her face when she heard the shrill tone of Tony's phone coming from his pocket. With a horrible sense of resignation she watched him answer it.

~o~o~o~

Tony hadn't been able to stop smiling for more than two minutes today and it was becoming a problem. Not one he cared to rectify, but still. He was still in a state of shock, he supposed. It felt like he was living in a dream, the sort where weird and wonderful things happened. After all, he'd never dreamed he would be in this situation, for one thing he never thought he'd get the chance. But here he was. Tony Stark. On his way to his and his wife's very first obstetrician appointment.

It hadn't been long since Pepper had told him the news and ever since then he'd been in a state of perpetual shocked happiness. He knew that when Pepper had told him she had been wary of his reaction; he could see it in her eyes.

He could see why. His lifestyle didn't exactly scream child friendly. They'd never talked about having children and if ever Tony had thought about it it seemed like such a distant far off notion, but not anymore. This was actually happening. They were going to be parents.

Of course it wasn't just happiness flitting through his mind. There was a more than liberal dose of fear mixed in there too. He'd never had a particularly solid father figure to look up to and he highly doubted that with his track record 'parent' was the first thing to spring into anybody's mind when they looked at him.

Be that as it may, when they reached the car his mind was still in a whirlwind of emotions but the predominant one was most definitely joy. The fact that they were on their way to their first doctor's appointment only made it better. Suddenly the idea of being a father seemed more tangible, more _real_.

They had reached the car and Tony had just looked at Pepper and seen that she too was smiling when the unthinkable happened.

The shrill tone of his phone broke through his thoughts and he forced himself to keep his breathing even as he answered the phone in his pocket,

"Hello?" He said as he fought to keep his tone polite. He knew from the caller id who was calling him and that alone was enough to make him irritated.

"Stark." Greeted Fury coolly, "We need you to come in. We've got a mission."

"No." There was silence on the line for a few seconds before a rush of static which sounded like a sigh.

"Stark…Tony. I'm sorry but we need you to come in on this one." The voice of the director was as human as Tony had ever heard it but it did nothing to abate Tony's steely determination.

"Can it wait?" Was Tony's question.

"No." The immediate reply made Tony narrow his eyes.

"Well then send the others out because it will be a cold day in hell before I go on that mission today, do you hear me?" Tony's voice was cold as he spoke. Dimly, he registered Pepper getting into the car to wait for him in the warm.

When the director spoke again his voice was back to the tone that was used to being obeyed, "I understand you don't want to go, but listen to me Stark, I am _not _above sending a extraction team to get you. Now, the real question is are you coming in by yourself or with a group of my best agents?"

Tony forced himself to remain calm but when he spoke down the phone his anger was evident and obvious, "Well, _I _am not above taking down every single data base you have. I'll crash that entire system and you might as well start writing everything down for all the good your computers will be. How good will your intelligence agency be when it has _no damn intelligence_? Don't doubt me. I'll do it, you know I can and will. And just in case that wasn't enough I will _personally _destroy every single piece of Stark tech owned by SHIELD, and if I remember rightly that's a lot of tech. Think about it, Nick." Tony closed down the phone quickly before giving the other man a chance to reply. He knew that even if it was the last thing he did he would be going to that appointment with Pepper today. Consequences be damned.

He took a few calming breaths before getting into the car. As soon as he was in she looked at him.

"Will you drop me off?" She asked, "I'll text Happy to pick me up afterwards."

It took Tony a second to realise what she was saying. She thought he was running off back to SHIELD and she was…accepting it. It made him feel worse than if she'd shouted and raged at him, the fact that she was resigned to him leaving her on a day like this…well, if he were honest, it hurt slightly. He knew he deserved it what with all the times he'd left her so far but this time he was sticking around.

"No need." He said feeling the smile creep back onto his face, "I'm coming with you."

Her smile was nearly binding and for that moment Tony couldn't care less about what happened with SHIELD.

From now on his family was his first priority.

…

A/N- Hope you enjoyed it and weren't too turned off it by the blatantly fluffy ending. If you liked it, hated it, or even have sort of "meh" feelings towards it, let me know! Drop me a review and I'll make sure to reply,

Thanks for reading!

VE


End file.
